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>>> Gasping for breath, Alan pulled his head from out of the abyss, a place in his world that didn't technically exist. Consciousness slowly returned as his lungs filled with the alley's pungent air. His head felt like a block of silicon floating down a mercury river. He glanced around at his surroundings—the dumpsters he sat between, cardboard boxes and wood pallets, trash floating in puddles—and wondered how he got there. He couldn't remember loading into Shanghai, let alone heading to this portal.

As the haze cleared from his head, the rest of the dimly lit alley rendered slowly back into view. The irony of bugging out like a junky in the seediest part of his otherwise clean world was not lost on him. This portal was the only one left in his world—he'd already reported the other ones to MTP to collect their bounties. He had saved this one because it was behind his favorite ramen shop. It was a seam that ran between two objects, where two brick buildings should have met but didn't. The result of this imprecise calculation in the sprawling code base rendering his world was a place where graphics failed to render, data ceased to process, and minutes stretched into days.

Alan's watch buzzed. His digipal's furry face popped onto the small screen on his wrist.

"Hey Al, how was the ramen?" Piper asked between licks of his paw.

"Tasty, as always," Alan replied, even though he couldn't remember having it.

"Good to hear, Al. Ed Djikstra left you a message; he said there's a new contract you might find interesting."

"A new contract from Ed?" Alan thought. The last time Alan worked with ed was as for the Streams feature, as an alpha tester. It earned him a lot of credits, which he'd spent unlocking new cities. He wished he'd save it to buy a multiplayer slot. Exploring a world alone save for sims got lonesome…

"Yes, Alan. Once you're finished with your current one, that is," Piper reminded him.

"Right," Alan replied. "Thanks Piper, I'll check it out when I'm back home."

"I'll catch you later," Piper barked as the video feed cut out.

Alan emerged from the alley onto Beijing Road, bathed in neon from shop signs and billboards written in Chinese and bad English. Still buzzed from the trip, he walked pensively down the empty street towards the Huangpu River that cut through the dense high rises. The city's skyline shimmered in the night sky, its reflection dancing on the river's inky surface. This late, Alan was all alone, though these days he always felt alone. His world was devoid of another human soul. Half-intelligent A.I.-controlled sims populated the world, but they were really only there for the aesthetics. Talking to them for more than a few minutes revealed uncanny, contradictory personalities. He could have bought a multiplayer slot from the payout for working on the Streams feature, but he had unlocked a dozen cities like Shanghai instead. The excitement of exploring foreign cities he hadn't visited in the physical had faded, and now he had to load into friends' worlds or sift through stories on Streams for open parties to hang out with other users.

He'd come to the edge of the river, and watched lights from the high rises' windows sparkle and sway across the water's dark expanse. The night's cool air brushed his face, and he closed his eyes. His thoughts drifted to his life in the physical; the relentless drive that had fueled his existence, the constant pursuit of his career. It all felt like a dream. Here, in this digital reality, he didn't know his purpose. He worked contracts for MTP for credits, and used his world's features, but there was no longer a guiding light. His life ebbed and flowed, like the stream before him. He felt like he was on the loading screen of a video game, waiting for the level to load.

Alan lingered at the water's edge, in quiet contemplation, till his eyes became heavy. Content with his experience, he dialed Home on his watch and loaded into his apartment in New Dallas to find out more about the new contract.